Digital Workplace: Why "work from anywhere" Should Be a Reality

A ‘work from anywhere’ business culture can boost employee productivity, improve efficiency, and tap into an untapped workforce. So how can we make it work?

We have the technology. We just need to change our mindset

In recent years, there has been much talk about building a ‘work from anywhere’ business culture to improve efficiency and productivity, and engage people who have been unwillingly excluded from employment, often due to their inability to work from a fixed location. Much progress has been made technically and digitally to enable such transformation, yet many organizations have difficulty making the leap.

Expanding workplace options – and our economy

Without question, a more widespread ‘work from anywhere’ culture in the UK could do much to boost the UK economy. A study by Citrix and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) found that the more productive use of available working hours, namely through flexible working, could add an extra £11.5bn per year to the UK economy, the equivalent of 0.7% of GDP.

Work should be something we do, not somewhere we go

I know that there is still much skepticism and misunderstanding about working from home, along with confusion over the array of technologies and collaboration tools available. It seems that we need to talk about how we tackle business culture at its core, so that we can accelerate the adoption of flexible working and reinvent our understanding of the term ‘workforce.’ It’s about time.